Pierre Boulez

Studying with Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatoire, Boulez emerged as the uncompromising intellectual leader of total serialism in the 1950s, publishing radical polemics. His 1955 masterwork Le Marteau sans maître (The Hammer Without a Master), setting René Char's poetry, redefined modern chamber music.

As a conductor renowned for surgical acoustic clarity, Boulez was music director of the New York Philharmonic and BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducting the landmark 1976 'Centenary Ring' at Bayreuth directed by Patrice Chéreau. In 1977, he founded IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique) at the Centre Pompidou, integrating computers into modern composition.